" Light is speech "


One can say more of sunlight
    than of speech; but speech
    and light, each
aiding each - when French -
have not disgraced that still
unextirpated adjective.
Yes, light is speech. Free frank
impartial sunlight, moonlight,
starlight, lighthouse light,
    are language. The Creach'h
d'Ouessant light -
house on its defenseless dot of
rock, is the descendant of Voltaire

whose flaming justice reached
    a man already harmed;
    of unarmed
Montaigne whose balance,
maintained despite the bandit's
hardness, lit remorse's saving
spark; of Émile Littré,
philology's determined,
ardent eight-volume
    Hippocrates-charmed
editor: A
man of fire, a scientist of
freedoms, was firm Maximilien

Paul Émile Littré. England
    guarded by the sea,
    we, with re-enforced Bartholdi's
Liberty holding up her
torch beside the port, hear France
demand, "Tell me the truth,
especially when it is
    unpleasant. "And we
cannot but reply,
"The word France means
enfranchisemente; means one who can
'animate whoever thinks of her.' "


   Moore, Marianne. Poesía Reunida ( 1915-1951 ). Madrid: Hiperión, 1996, pp 222 - 224.
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